


High Tide

by kurgaya



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bending (Avatar), Established Relationship, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-23 01:29:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7461255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurgaya/pseuds/kurgaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>From the other end of the ship, panting as though he has run from the depths of his workshop, Usopp is the next to let out a scream:</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Why is there a SHARK ON THE DECK!?”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	High Tide

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [zoluweek](http://zolu-week.tumblr.com/) day 3 "prank".
> 
> I'd been thinking of writing a bending!au for a while. Instead of going for the obvious choices, I decided to make it a bit more interesting for myself by assigning the crew elements that I would not _necessarily_ equate them with :)

 

“Luffy, he’s going to _kill_ you when he wakes up.”

The captain snickers but continues with his task, the ocean waves around the Sunny slowly, reluctantly surging at his beckon, whooshing and foaming and dolloping - _plop!_ \- into a sphere of saltwater tides. Above the horizon, the ball of water begins to float, drifting up towards the deck like a blue lagoon of a sun rising in the east. Luffy’s waterbending has never been the neatest, the smoothest, or, really, anything that waterbending is awed for - the power to heal and change and guide the tides of the world - but it calls to him nonetheless, his soul the waves and the oceans blue.

( _But you’re a Devil Fruit user,_  they mutter, and Luffy laughs, _yeah_ , with a shrug, wondering why the way he breathes is theirs to question, the water around him and the water within him in harmonious dissent: _I’m going to be the Pirate King!_ he shouts, and the sea can only bow before him).

They’re days from the next island and weeks from the one before, and though long-since accustomed to a life at sea as the crew are, Sunny is a beautiful, perfect, boring ship, and there’s only so much to be done to stave off the hours. Luffy loves the sea, loves it just as much as it hates him, hinders him, and helps him at once, luring his pirate's heart out towards the Raftel sun, but even he has reached his limit. Nami, too, must be eager for some distraction, otherwise she would have put an end to his plot long before it had even occurred to Luffy as it had just minutes before, watching his first mate snooze out on the deck, the book rising and falling on his stomach not quite as entertaining as the text within.

“Nah,” Luffy says, stepping carefully as he pulls the bubble over the banister, hands never ceasing to mimic the tidal flow. “Zoro’d never do that.”

Nami sighs at the captain’s triumphant laugh. “You might be pushing your luck here,” she warns, hands twitching with the urge to take the saltwater sphere from him. A waterbender herself, there is nothing stopping her from doing so except the bite of her lips suppressing a smile, a glance at the oblivious first mate, and a wicked desire to see the captain follow through with his plan, and Luffy snickers, glad that for the approval.

A watery wake-up call _is_ a little mean, but it’s the jagged fins and tail and _teeth_ of the particularly unimpressed _tiger shark_ that Luffy has lifted from the sea that Zoro will have _things to say_ about.

“Just… don’t drop it, okay?” Nami pleads, ever the peace-keeper on the ship. “An angry _Zoro_ will be bad enough.”

Settled at the base of the stairs as though he couldn’t be bothered to climb them, Zoro slumbers unaware with his snores wobbling up towards the sun, peaceful discomposure sprawled out like a cat basking in the warmth. Feeling a _tad_ guilty about his plan to wreck his swordsman’s afternoon - his first mate’s serenity, only achieved on the safety of the Sunny, and the lull in his lover’s relentless training - but not enough to think twice about it, Luffy creeps over with his flip-flops _thuwack-flapping_ over the Adam’s wood. The shark thrashes in its prison, its anger only promising a sweeter reaction from Zoro, and Luffy’s grin widens at the thought.

“Zoro won’t be angry - he’ll be _livid_!” he chirps, shuffling across the grassy deck to hone in on his target. Taking a moment to nudge the book away from the cascading ball (Zoro and a shark are one thing, fierce and wild yet mostly harmless, but _Robin’s_ fury is definitely not something to induce), Luffy laughs at Nami’s heaving sigh.

“You say that like it’s a good thing.”

He nods (because, well, _isn’t it?_ ) and his hat bounces along at his shoulders. “It’ll be funny!”

The navigator considers this for a moment, reluctant to admit her amusement, but the infectious happiness of Luffy’s smile wins out. “Well,” Nami agrees, meaning _oh god_ as she watches from the upper deck. “Yeah, I _suppose_.”

“ _Plus_ ,” Luffy goes on. “Zoro gets red all the way down to his neck and it’s _great._ ”

“If you say so,” Nami says, accepting these words as she accepts all of the captain’s declarations of affection, brazen-faced and not batting a single eyelash. Luffy’s love for his crew has never been something that the captain felt to hide, and now that his relationship with Zoro has developed from _platonic_ to _for crying out loud give them a room,_  his exclamations have only become endearments towards their gruff, equally stubborn first mate.

(For all of Zoro’s grumbling and complaining, Luffy knows he doesn’t _really_ mind the sweet talk).

(“Sweet talk?” Luffy had said at the first protest, many months ago now. “Does that involve cake?”

“Oh my _god_ ,” had been Zoro’s red-tipped ears reply. “Never _mind_.”)

Above them, the shark’s attempts of escape increase in their vigorousity, its sweeping tail slapping frantically against the circumference of the sphere. Luffy cries _ooh!_ and quickly doubles his efforts at containing it, tongue clamped between his teeth as the water swirls at his will. Nami doesn’t offer to help but he wouldn’t let her anyway, determined to both master this waterbending skill and take the full brunt of Zoro’s rage when he gets awoken to _this._

“Zoro’s going to _kill me,"_  he laughs.

“Without a doubt,” Nami concurs.

And so Luffy nudges his first mate awake to face this certainty head-on. _Hey, hey Zoro,_  he calls as the swordsman rouses, waking beautifully, innocently slowly slumped there on the deck, single eye blinking through sleep and sunlight and into the cruel world that Luffy has devised. Zoro groans or hums, not quite a yawn, and rolls just slightly to the sound of his partner’s voice, earrings chinking like gold coins in a treasure chest.

“Hi Zoro!” Luffy chimes, and exactly on cue, the beastly shark opens its mouth into a grisly smile, a nightmarish echo of the captain’s brilliant delight.

Zoro’s yell to the high heavens is more of a _scream,_  his sleepy lour contorting into sheer, befuddled _terror_ , and the crew of the Sunny respond in kind, doors thundering open across the ship in response to the first mate’s bellowing fear.

“Oh my _god,_ ” Nami wheezes, doubled over the upper balcony and clutching her stomach hard, shrieking a sound of laughter that only Luffy echoes. “That was better than I ever could’ve _imagined._ ”

Zoro definitely doesn’t share the sentiment. With a roar of _LUFFY_! he _throws_ himself at the captain; Luffy yelps, hiccups around a laugh and scampers away with flailing arms and legs, and left entirely forgotten behind him, the shark flops _splat!_ onto the Sunny, where it is helpless but to thrash and wiggle around.

Luffy _howls_ , bounding over the grass with the first mate hot on his heels, and from the other end of the ship, panting as though he has run from the depths of his workshop, Usopp is the next to let out a scream:

“Why is there a _SHARK ON THE DECK_!?”

Luffy flings himself over Usopp’s cowering form and horrified expression and up into the rigging, yelling an apology to the flabbergast sniper. Zoro follows without hesitation, air gushing around him at his command, and Luffy spares a second to feel awe at watching what must be the ocean’s clunkiest, most ungraceful airbender _ever_ hurtle up into the sky before realising that said airbender is hell bent on revenge against _him_. Wheezing now, breathless, boisterous, and bouncing around the sails, Luffy dodges away, rubber body snapping further up the ship.

Far from the deck below, the frantic conversation between the crew is lost to the rush of air against Luffy’s face, the natural storms and Zoro’s power howling together. The captain’s laugh carries up to the sky; the consequences of being caught will be dire, but he is enjoying the thrill of the chase, the recoil of his Devil Fruit skin, and the sound of Zoro cursing behind him.

“Get back here!” the swordsman growls, the mainsail flapping as he summons the sky around him. Just audible below, Nami bellows up a reprimand about changing their course, and Zoro yells back before dutifully taming the wind at his fingertips.

Luffy snickers.

“Don’t think you’re getting off scot-free,” Zoro warns, shifting as though to attempt the jump to the next sail, a leopard gauging the distance to its prey. Luffy knows that it’s possible; with his rubbery body and Zoro’s airbending skills, they are the only of the crew who can move at such heights without fear. That Zoro _can_ match Luffy step-for-step into the rigging is easy to forget with his _airbender-antithesis_ appearance, demeanour, and general outlook, and the fact that Zoro seldom relies on his airbending doesn’t assist matters.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” Luffy provokes, sticking out his tongue.

The Sunny hits a wave, water crashing around the hull and foam spraying up. Luffy parts the water around him, the ship bumps again, and Zoro jumps - only, the distance has widened; he tries to grab the rigging - _misses_ -

One of them yells. Luffy launches from the crow’s nest.

They tumble past the mainsail, both reaching out to catch the other; Luffy’s arms stretching to secure around Zoro’s waist, and Zoro snatching the back of Luffy’s shirt, wind curling beneath them to cushion their fall. They land softly by the helm, entirely unharmed, and Luffy only has a moment to be thankful for this before Zoro has captured the captain’s waistcoat in a merciless grasp.

“You - are - _dead._ ”

Luffy whines, adopting a puppy-dog expression in the hopes of swaying his other half; how close they are standing would be nice if Zoro’s glare weren’t threatening to set the deck and everything nearby ablaze.

“I’ll throw you overboard,” Zoro warns.

The captain gasps, “Mutiny!” and Zoro looks amused for an entire _millisecond_ \- but Luffy counts that as a win.

“I’ll show you _mutiny_ -”

“If I may interrupt,” Robin says from the lower deck, smooth tone encouraging both men to glance down. They don’t step apart, Zoro still enraged and Luffy unashamed about displaying his affections, but Robin doesn’t seem fazed even as she says, “Perhaps flirting can wait until something is done about our temporary guest?”

“Fry it,” Sanji suggests, voice deadpan as he pokes a spatula in Usopp’s direction.

 _What, no,_ cries the sniper’s flustered expression, the bounce of his raven curls as he shakes his head. “ _You_ fry it!”

“ _You’re_ the firebender, long-nose. It could be dinner.”

“I’m not killing it! We could keep it - name it _Pete_!”

“ _Pete!_ ” Sanji repeats, baby-pink apron only increasing his incredulity to a rather frightening level.

“Or _Penny!_ You never know!” Usopp warbles, holding his hands up in surrender. He begins to back away from the enraged cook, only to have the equally-maddened tiger shark nip at his heels.

The whimpering sound he emits has Franky booming his bellowing laugh as he appears from somewhere below deck. “Yeah,” the cyborg agrees, shooting the spatula-wielding chef a grin. “Pete can be anything he wants, bro.”

“ _Pete’s a shark!_ ” Sanji shrieks, throwing his arms up into the air, and Luffy has to muffle his laughter in Zoro’s shirt lest the blazing chef hear him.

 _Sheesh,_  Zoro sighs, the breath hot against Luffy’s hair. “Oi, Franky,” he calls, those out on the Sunny’s grassy deck turning as one at his beckon. “Bend it back into the water, would you?”

“Oh. Yeah, sure can do, Zoro-bro. Sorry Pete,” says the third and final waterbender on the crew, metal hands stretching out to sweep the animal from the deck. Still thrashing, the shark _plops_ back under the waves, and a collective sigh of relief can be heard from all sides of the Sunny - Zoro’s louder than most.

“Could’ve eaten it,” Sanji mumbles, nearly tripping over Chopper as the little reindeer pops his head around the kitchen door. They both startle ( _whooa what - Chopper!_ cries the chef), Chopper zipping out from beneath Sanji’s hazardous step with a squeal, but Brook appears with a _yohoho_ and a steady hand to save Sanji from tumbling over their tiniest nakama.

“Eiii, sorry Sanji, sorry! I just wanted to see if the shark was okay.”

“Well, Usopp refused to fry it for me so…”

“ _Hey!_ ”

Luffy laughs, entertained by his nakamas’ bickering, and as the boredom of the long days at sea ebbs away, soon the crew return to their afternoons. Zoro, too, begins to gravitate back towards where he had been snoozing, his book and katana still propped by the stairs, so Luffy gives the sleepy airbender a final, cheeky hug, before wiggling himself away.

“Still mad at you,” Zoro grumbles.

 _Oh yeah?_ asks the next note of Luffy’s laugh. “How mad?”

“Furious,” comes the notably not-so-furious reply, the expected and welcome response. Zoro isn’t one to hold a grudge, but he also isn’t above shoving Luffy in the metaphorical dog-house for a couple of hours. The first mate’s bed is very rarely not open to Luffy, although, as the captain peers up at the thunder still brewing in Zoro’s sole eye, the crease of his brow, and the quirk of his lip, he has to wonder if tonight will be one of those terrible times.

 _Mostly harmless_ , Luffy remembers, dotting a playful kiss under Zoro’s jaw. _And worth it_.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Luffy - water  
> Zoro - air  
> Nami - water  
> Usopp - fire  
> Sanji - earth (specialising in sand)  
> Chopper - n/a (being a reindeer) / non bender  
> Robin - non bender  
> Franky - water  
> Brook - earth (specialising in metal)


End file.
